1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical collecting containers, and more particularly, to fat harvesting containers.
2. Other Related Applications.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/419,575, filed on Apr. 7, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
3. Description of the Related Art.
Liposuction, also known as lipoplasty, liposculpture suction lipectomy, or simply lipo (suction-assisted fat removal) is a cosmetic procedure that removes fat from many different sites of the human body. Since liposuction procedures have become more widely available, fat has also become more easily withdrawn from the body. That development has allowed more plastic, dermatological, and cosmetic surgeons to offer their patients fat transfer for cosmetic reasons. Patients like fat transfer because it is their own tissue and, hence, not subject to rejection by the body. However, the safety of the technique relates not only to the amount of tissue removed, but also to the harvesting of fat to be transferred.
Essentially, the fat transfer procedure harvests fat from one part of the body, where an excess exists, and then places it in another part of the body where the additional bulk is used for cosmetic and aesthetic purposes. Fat transfer, which is also known as fat grafting, autologous fat transplantation, fat injecting, or microlipoinjections, may be used to smooth and repair aged hands; fill wrinkled and creased faces; create more shapely, curvaceous buttocks; or enlarge breasts as an example.
In the most common used procedures, fat is withdrawn from the patient with a syringe that has a large bore needle or with a liposuction cannula. The fat is prepared according to the practitioner's preferred method and then injected into the patient's recipient site. The preparation process needs to clear the donor fat of blood and other unwanted ingredients that could cause undesirable side effects. Moreover, some physicians have found that human fat outside the body is incredibly delicate. An important fact of the survival of injected fat seems to depend on how the physician harvests the donor fat, the technique used to treat the fat, and how the prepared fat cells are put back into the patient. Therefore, the procedure is operator dependent and relies on the techniques of harvesting, cleansing, and reinjection.
In order to prepare the fat tissue for injection, it must be separated from other harvested substances in a mixture, whereby the mixture is manipulated in a variety of ways in order to remove oil, blood, and tumescent fluid layers for the transfer of the fat tissue. The transfer of the fat tissue is usually made to smaller transplantation syringes for transplantation. Various manipulation techniques involve rotating and moving the mixture from one container to another. Often, the fat tissue is injected into another container to be washed, and then injected into the smaller transplantation syringes so that it may then be injected into the desired location. Each of these manipulations exposes at least some of the mixture and the fat tissue therein to air. In addition, they bring the mixture and tissue into contact with additional instruments and surfaces, often causing trauma to the tissue. Each exposure to air reduces the viability of the fat tissue, and increases the risk of contamination. Each manipulation of the mixture, and the fat tissue contained therein, affects the results of the transplantation. The compromised sterility increases the chances of infection, inflammation, and rejection of the fat transplant.
Other methods and apparatus related to the subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these methods and apparatus suggest the novel features of the present invention.